Stanford students occupy the area outside the administration building at Stanford University on Nov. 19, 2015. The students are demanding that the prestigious university’s leadership formally divest itself of any investments in fossil fuel related business and research. Stanford University has decided to maintain its controversial ties to the fossil fuel industry, citing academic freedom and the need for practical knowledge in the search for climate-crisis solutions.
“The university programs should not be sponsoring fossil fuel-related research, just like it shouldn’t be supporting tobacco-related research,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering who is leading a Stanford team modeling how to take more than 100 nations to all-renewable power by 2035.
Some universities, such as Cambridge and Princeton, have distanced themselves from such funds. Others, such as UC Berkeley and MIT, accept them. The school will work with companies “that are making measurably meaningful efforts to be part of the solution,” according to Arun Majumdar, the school’s dean.
The university’s policy on academic freedom, which states that “expression of the widest range of viewpoints should be encouraged,” can help find solutions to the climate crisis, according to the report. Oil and gas companies seek university-based research because “it gives them cover — that they’re helping,” he said. Corporate funding “affects the credibility of researchers.”“When you’re trying to solve the climate problem, you don’t collaborate with companies that are hell-bent on preserving fossil fuel extraction well into the future,” said Alex Marquardt of the Climate Defense Project.